Middle East News Quiz

Winds of change are blowing through the Middle East. Check your knowledge of recent events.

1. Which Middle Eastern nation's historic election last week heralded political change, but was marred by allegations of bias and vote rigging?

Israel

Jordan

Qatar

Syria

Answer: B. Jordanians went to the polls on January 25 and elected opposition candidates in 25% of parliamentary slots. Voter turnout was low, however, following a recent law that suppressed voter clout in the big cities, giving tribal-dominated rural areas more power. The Muslim Brotherhood, Jordan's largest opposition party, boycotted the elections entirely, and later claimed there had been voter fraud. Nevertheless, the vote was historic: for the first time, King Abdullah will consult Parliament when he chooses Jordan's next Prime Minister.

2.Israel's national elections on January 22 brought a change in the political landscape, with the emergence of several vivid new political parties. How many of Israel's lawmakers will be women and minorities?

The incoming Knesset will have the lowest number of women and minorities in years.

The incoming Knesset will have the highest number of women and minorities in years.

Half will be women and minorities.

None will be women and minorities.

Answer: B. The 2013 Knesset will have 26 women. Three parties are headed by women, and the big surprise in the election – the newly formed Yesh Atid party – fielded a candidate list that was 40% female. One Yesh Atid representative, Karin Elharrar, is disabled and uses a wheelchair. Penina Tamono-Shata, a lawyer and reporter whose family immigrated to Israel when she was three, will become the first Ethiopian woman to serve in the Knesset. Orthodox Jewish legislators will account for nearly third of the new MKs – including Aish.com author Dov Lipman. 30 MKs will be of Sephardi, or Middle Eastern, descent. There will be one Druze MK, Hamed Amer of the center-right Yisrael Bateinu.

Answer: A. January 25 saw clashes throughout Egypt as people took to the streets to mark the second anniversary of the ousting of former leader Hosni Mubarak. Over 250 people were injured across the country, and at least nine people were killed in Tahrir Square, the Cairo site where the uprising first took place. Rioting continued on January 26 in the coastal city of Port Said, claiming 32 lives by nightfall.

4. Jordan made an international appeal on January 25

requesting help monitoring local elections.

requesting help in drafting a new constitution

due to concerns about tensions on its border with Israel.

appealing for aid as Syrian refugees streamed over its borders.

Answer: D. Over 6,000 Syrian refugees fled into Jordan on January 24 alone, as fighting in southern Syria intensified. They joined relatives in Jordan's Zatari refugee camp, which was opened in July and already is home to 65,000 people. Over 300,000 Syrians have entered Jordan since fighting began there; it is estimated that nearly 700,000 Syrians have left the country overall.

5. Following Israel's election, one prominent British Member of Parliament excoriated Israel, comparing its treatment of Palestinians to the Holocaust. Did Arabs play any part in Israel's recent election, such as voting, or running for office?

They can vote, but not stand for election.

Anyone can run for office Israel, but they must sign a loyalty pledge first.

No.

Israel offers complete, unfettered access to its vibrant democracy to all citizens, regardless of race, origin, ideology or creed.

Answer: D. Three Arab-Israeli parties are represented in the incoming Knesset. The 2013 elections saw thousands of Jewish Israelis voting for Arab-led parties, as well as about 20% of Israeli Arabs who typically vote for Jewish-led parties. Israel's Knesset is even home to some politicians who hold extremely anti-Zionist views: Hanin Zoabi, an Israeli Arab woman who has served as an MK since 2009, participated in the violent Gaza flotilla of 2010. When some Israelis called for her ouster from the Knesset; Israel's Supreme Court ruled in her favor.

6. What Middle East country saw the stirrings of protest last week, as citizens took to Twitter to ridicule a state police force?

Saudi Arabia

Yeman

Lebanon

United Arab Emirates

Answer: A. Saudis are used to fearing the 5,000 agents of the “Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice,” who are charged with making sure women are covered from head to toe and don't appear in public without a male escort, sniffing out illicit alcohol, enforcing prayer, and other tasks. They are so zealous that Saudis routinely die in the committee's prisons. Yet last week saw the beginnings of revolt: after shutting down a children's exhibit about dinosaurs, Saudis across the country Tweeted comments ridiculing the committee's zeal.

7. When Israelis went to the polls on January 22 to choose a new government, the result was:

The country lurched to the right, fueled by fears of Iran's nuclear program.

After enduring thousands of missiles launched from Gaza last year, Israelis voted in a new, right-wing government.

The big surprise was Israel's shift to dead center, with some left-of-center parties doing particularly well.

Nothing; Israelis returned the same politicians to power once again.

Answer: C. Israelis voted in a whopping 50 new members to the Knesset. One surprise in last week's election was the success of the new centrist party Yesh Atid, which ran largely on left-of-center social issues, and got the second highest number of votes. It will likely be included in Israel's next governing coalition, where it plans to push for programs that benefit Israel's middle class.

8. What was Malaysia's response to Israel's elections on January 22?

Prime Minister Najib Razak flew to Gaza to show solidarity with Hamas leaders.

Prime Minister Najib Razak flew to Jerusalem to show solidarity with Benjamin Netanyahu.

Prime Minister Najib Razak flew to Haifa, to show solidarity with Israeli Arabs voting in the elections.

Answer: A. Najib Razak flew to Gaza to meet with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyah, who has overseen the launching of thousands of rockets into Israel since Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza eight years ago. Despite the fact that his brother was treated for a life-saving heart condition in an Israeli hospital last year, Haniyah continues to call for the destruction of the Jewish state.

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About the Author

Yvette Alt Miller earned her B.A. at Harvard University. She completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Jewish Studies at Oxford University, and has a Ph.D. In International Relations from the London School of Economics. She lives with her family in Chicago, and has lectured internationally on Jewish topics. Her book Angels at the table: a Practical Guide to Celebrating Shabbat takes readers through the rituals of Shabbat and more, explaining the full beautiful spectrum of Jewish traditions with warmth and humor. It has been praised as "life-changing", a modern classic, and used in classes and discussion groups around the world.

I've been striving to get more into spirituality. But it seems that every time I make some progress, I find myself slipping right back to where I started. I'm getting discouraged and feel like a failure. Can you help?

The Aish Rabbi Replies:

Spiritual slumps are a natural part of spiritual growth. There is a cycle that people go through when at times they feel closer to God and at times more distant. In the words of the Kabbalists, it is "two steps forward and one step back." So although you feel you are slipping, know that this is a natural process. The main thing is to look at your overall progress (over months or years) and be able to see how far you've come!

This is actually God's ingenious way of motivating us further. The sages compare this to teaching a baby how to walk. When the parent is holding on, the baby shrieks with delight and is under the illusion that he knows how to walk. Yet suddenly, when the parent lets go, the child panics, wobbles and may even fall.

At such times when we feel spiritually "down," that is often because God is letting go, giving us the great gift of independence. In some ways, these are the times when we can actually grow the most. For if we can move ourselves just a little bit forward, we truly acquire a level of sanctity that is ours forever.

Here is a practical tool to help pull you out of the doldrums. The Sefer HaChinuch speaks about a great principle in spiritual growth: "The external awakens the internal." This means that although we may not experience immediate feelings of closeness to God, eventually, by continuing to conduct ourselves in such a manner, this physical behavior will have an impact on our spiritual selves and will help us succeed. (A similar idea is discussed by psychologists who say: "Smile and you will feel happy.")

That is the power of Torah commandments. Even if we may not feel like giving charity or praying at this particular moment, by having a "mitzvah" obligation to do so, we are in a framework to become inspired. At that point we can infuse that act of charity or prayer with all the meaning and lift it can provide. But if we'd wait until being inspired, we might be waiting a very long time.

May the Almighty bless you with the clarity to see your progress, and may you do so with joy.

In 1940, a boatload 1,600 Jewish immigrants fleeing Hitler's ovens was denied entry into the port of Haifa; the British deported them to the island of Mauritius. At the time, the British had acceded to Arab demands and restricted Jewish immigration into Palestine. The urgent plight of European Jewry generated an "illegal" immigration movement, but the British were vigilant in denying entry. Some ships, such as the Struma, sunk and their hundreds of passengers killed.

If you seize too much, you are left with nothing. If you take less, you may retain it (Rosh Hashanah 4b).

Sometimes our appetites are insatiable; more accurately, we act as though they were insatiable. The Midrash states that a person may never be satisfied. "If he has one hundred, he wants two hundred. If he gets two hundred, he wants four hundred" (Koheles Rabbah 1:34). How often have we seen people whose insatiable desire for material wealth resulted in their losing everything, much like the gambler whose constant urge to win results in total loss.

People's bodies are finite, and their actual needs are limited. The endless pursuit for more wealth than they can use is nothing more than an elusive belief that they can live forever (Psalms 49:10).

The one part of us which is indeed infinite is our neshamah (soul), which, being of Divine origin, can crave and achieve infinity and eternity, and such craving is characteristic of spiritual growth.

How strange that we tend to give the body much more than it can possibly handle, and the neshamah so much less than it needs!